England’s manager of the year? Jose Mourinho, by a street. The interpreter has flowered into a Champions League-winning coach ready to slug it out with Arsène Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson, while calmly topping the Premiership by 10 points. Get the blue and white ribbons out. The race is over.
Player of the year? Frank Lampard, who has matured from junior at West Ham (where his dad, of the same name, was assistant manager) to a superman who never misses a game or a goal in the middle of the most expensive football side the world has ever seen. He is the most vital cog in a machine ready to provide Chelsea’s first championship since 1955.
Second place? John Terry, the big, no-nonsense England centre half who, in partnership with swift Frenchman William Gallas, has contrived to produce the meanest defence in the history of the Premiership.
Goalkeeper of the year? The aptly named Czech, Petr Cech. Anybody who can keep last year’s number one contender Carlo Cudicini out of the team has to be superb in training as well as being able to marshal that superb defence.
Of course it’s too early to announce these winners now. But the engravers might as well get on with it. Nothing’s going to change. It’s all about Chelsea this season, though it’s interesting none of their strikers are up among the top scorers.
Though they boast Thierry Henry and Robert Pires among the top scorers, Arsenal’s woeful performance in the FA Cup third round against Stoke, a highly fortunate 2-1 win, was just a taste of what was to come at Bolton last week, when Sam Allardyce’s men romped off with a 1-0 win.
Bolton looked like the defending champions for much of the match as Arsenal, with Patrick Vieira playing like a man who has forgotten what he is employed for, scrabbled desperately for a point.
Manchester United? They’ve done exactly what Ferguson is good at. They’ve caught Arsenal and will probably overhaul them before May. A month ago, United were trailing behind Everton and all those other hopefuls. Fergie said he’d have them back in the top three by the New Year and he was right.
Sadly for Fergie’s rejuvenated troops, Chelsea are long gone. Nobody can see a weakness. There is no end to Chelsea’s depth, though Mourinho, hugely popular among the press and broadcast media, would have us believe he has all the problems a normal manager faces with injury and suspensions. But Mourinho has all the depth to make it through to May without really raising a sweat. And he’s got the cheek too.
When Chelsea suffered a rare poor result in the League Cup semifinal against Manchester United last week, Mourinho did the unthinkable. He told the world about Ferguson’s distinctly dodgy pastime of talking to the referees in the tunnel at half-time. Gordon Strachan once told us Fergie encouraged his players to moan at referees, a tactic which has helped sway officials since those far-off days when Aberdeen were a power in Scotland and Europe under a thirtysomething Ferguson.
His eagerness to persuade refs to see things his way has always under-pinned the old-fashioned Ferguson philosophy. But Mourinho has blown the lid on what many might consider a slightly dubious tactic.
Mourinho says: ”Maybe one day, when I’m 60 and I’ve been in the same league for 20 years, I will have the same power to speak to people like this and they’ll tremble a little bit.”
The era of Arsenal and Manchester United, the age of the red brigade that stretches back to Liverpool in the 1980s, is over. For the foreseeable future, English football will be very blue. It’s a theme worth sticking to as we go through the fixtures this week:
Birmingham vs Fulham
How Fulham needed that late, late goal from Papa Bouba Diop against West Brom the other night — and a couple of penalty decisions that infuriated Baggies boss Bryan Robson. Birmingham, after a brief festive-season revival, slipped up against Charlton last time out. Just one point separates these two clubs in the table and although the gap to the relegation zone is growing, neither can afford defeat. But if blue is the colour this week, it has to be …
Verdict: Birmingham 1 Fulham 0
Chelsea vs Pompey
Blimey, two blue teams. But only one winner. Portsmouth were surprised at home by Blackburn last week, Chelsea just keep grinding out the results. In fact, Lampard reckons they’ve already had their blip this season. You might have missed it — the loss at Manchester City early in the season, their only defeat so far. Can’t see another blip, can you?
Verdict: Chelsea 2 Portsmouth 0
Palace vs Tottenham
Spurs were unlucky against Chelsea — dodgy penalty — and Manchester United — dodgy decision — so they deserve to bounce back. Under Martin Jol, they’re a different proposition to earlier in the season, with Michael Carrick the key figure. Palace? We all know the key figure there: Andy Johnson. But after last week’s 3-1 defeat at Manchester City, I don’t think even he can save them. And Spurs do wear blue shorts.
Verdict: Palace 1 Spurs 2
Everton vs Charlton
How the hell could David Moyes let his midfield general Thomas Gravesen go off to Real Madrid? I guess he had no choice. Apparently the Great Dane is on four times his Goodison salary at the Bernabeu. But I can’t see Everton maintaining any sort of form without him. Charlton have pushed in to a highly respectable seventh, just 10 points behind Everton. I expect that gap to close still further, unless that old warhorse, Duncan Ferguson, comes on and shakes things up for Everton like he did against Middlesbrough. Everton are in blue, Charlton in red but even so, it has to be …
Verdict: Everton 1 Charlton 1
Man United vs Villa
Never thought I’d say this, but it’s a pity Ruud van Nistelrooy, old horse face, has been out injured for so long. Without him United don’t score those niggly little goals and pick up those extra points they need so badly to close the gap on Chelsea. Villa appeared to bounce back with a healthy 3-0 win last week, but it was against Norwich, so it means little. No chance at Old Trafford.
Verdict: United 2 Villa 0
Norwich vs Boro
Middlesbrough looked like picking up the big scalp of Everton on Sunday, until Duncan Ferguson disrupted proceedings. They’re a neat unit, Boro, and Bolo Zenden prompts them nicely from the middle while Gareth Southgate holds things together at the back. Norwich will be hoping Dean Ashton, their record signing from Crewe (at just £3-million he’d be one of Chelsea’s cheaper stars) will help. He hasn’t so far. He managed to touch one in to his own net on his debut against Villa and I suspect it won’t get any easier.
Verdict: Norwich 1 Boro 3
Saints vs Liverpool
Poor old Harry Redknapp. Just an FA Cup win over Northampton to show for all his wheeling and dealing and posturing since he left Portsmouth. He’s got to hope for a point here or people will really start to talk. For his son Jamie, this is a return to an old stamping ground, and we should find out if Dad really did the right thing by signing him from Spurs. After their disappointing defeat against United last week, Liverpool will be hoping for all three points.
Verdict: Southampton 1 Liverpool 1
WBA vs Man City
City have effectively climbed out of the hole they were making for themselves earlier in the season, with Shaun Wright-Phillips leading the way with the goals and energy that have lifted them to midtable. City’s second-best player, Nicolas Anelka, spends his time avoiding confrontation against Arsenal and seeking a move. Amazing how much difference attitude can make. West Brom look doomed, especially after their unlucky defeat against Fulham. Manager Bryan Robson must be hoping this will provide his first win as Baggies coach. I suspect it will, now City are feeling safe.
Verdict: West Brom 1 Man City 0
Arsenal vs Newcastle
Game of the weekend, with Arsenal on the slippery slope up against a Newcastle side rejuvenated by the return of Alan Shearer up front. While Wenger’s men fell to defeat at Bolton, Graeme Souness’s team picked up three big points against Southampton. I expect at least a point at Highbury — and, remember, I predicted the right result for Arsenal at Bolton last week. How many can say that?
Verdict: Arsenal 2 Newcastle 2
Blackburn vs Bolton
Great result for Blackburn last week, that win at Portsmouth. But I hear Mark Hughes is creating a side full of spite and venom in his desperate bid to escape the relegation zone. Now seven points clear of the bottom four, he just needs Robbie Savage to complete the picture. Bolton have recovered from that awful pre-Christmas run of six successive defeats, but I think Blackburn’s nastiness might just overcome the Jay-Jay Okocha-style flair of the Wanderers.
Verdict: Blackburn 2 Bolton 1 — and not only because the Rovers wear blue.